Looking through include/linux/kernel.h, it appears to me that labs() isn't used at all, and abs() returns only int. Might it be beneficial to make abs() usable for a wider range of types? At least that's what the below patch is intended to do. Would that be generally a bad idea, or am I missing something? Signed-off-by: Nicolas Kaiser <nikai@xxxxxxxxx> --- --- a/include/linux/kernel.h 2005-11-20 11:48:57.000000000 +0100 +++ b/include/linux/kernel.h 2005-11-24 19:44:09.000000000 +0100 @@ -76,12 +76,7 @@ extern int cond_resched(void); #define might_sleep_if(cond) do { if (unlikely(cond)) might_sleep(); } while (0) #define abs(x) ({ \ - int __x = (x); \ - (__x < 0) ? -__x : __x; \ - }) - -#define labs(x) ({ \ - long __x = (x); \ + typeof(x) __x = (x); \ (__x < 0) ? -__x : __x; \ }) -- Kernelnewbies: Help each other learn about the Linux kernel. Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/kernelnewbies/ FAQ: http://kernelnewbies.org/faq/